Flyer Time... Saturday, October 25

It's a bit nerve-racking standing in the middle of a downtown street, approaching random strangers as they pass by and hoping they'll take the flyer you've interrupted them and asked they to take.  

There are 5 basic responses the public gives whenever we approach them with an outstretched arm and flyer in hand.

A.  The person who flat out ignores you.

B.  The person who says "no" or motions no with their hand or shaking of their head.

C.  The person who reluctantly takes it but doesn't really want to.

D.  The person who takes it and comments.  Usually they say "thank you" or smile.

E.  The person who takes it and enquires about it on the spot or returns to do so.

Person A is the absolute worst in that you can't help but feel invisible and one too many of these people one after another is rather discouraging.  I know not to take it personally but it kind of hurts when people just look past you when you're talking, as if you don't even exist, and yet you're expected to remain smiling because no sooner does Person A walk by but then another person comes so you hope they don't throw you a similar reaction when you approach them. Having had my share of handing out flyers now, I refuse to be another Person A to some other flyer-handing-out person. 

Person E is the best, of course, but they don't come along so often.  But when they do come along, our energy is instantly recharged, we become all smiles and we're eager to throw them more information.  We get a lot of Person D which is good because they definitely help raise the slump the random odd clump of too many Person As push us in. I get more Ds than Snickers and I think it is a mix between me being a female and a foreigner approaching them in English.  Usually Snickers targets the ladies and I go straight for the guys -- batting our lashes at them and working our charm. The kids love it when I approach them and sometimes they'll loop around in the street to come say something to me again.  It's quite cute.  

Today we handed out roughly 200 flyers in a little over an hour.